Welcome future Illumineers! This post will break down all the information we have about Disney’s newly minted card game, Lorcana. If you haven’t joined one of our communities yet, make sure you jump into one (or both) so you don’t miss any developments. We have a Discord and a Facebook Community.
Disney Lorcana is a new physical Trading Card Game that is releasing in the fall of 2023. Lorcana is being developed and produced by Ravensburger a game company older than Disney itself. Ravensburger is no stranger to Disney IP. For the last two years, they’ve developed and produced the award-winning game Disney Villainous.
Ravensburger has built a team of industry veterans for the design and development of Lorcana. Here’s a short list of some of the people involved: Ryan Miller (Digimon, Kijudo), Kelly Digges (Magic: The Gathering), Shane Hartley (Wizkids), Matthew Eng (Hasbro), and many more talented individuals.
Ravensburger plans to release four sets per year and have a “robust organized play program”.
In Disney Lorcana you are an Illumineer who uses Magic to call forth familiar Disney characters who have been reimagined, from The Great Illuminary. These are called “glimmers”, and it’s with these characters that you embark on your adventure.
“The basic idea is there’s this place called The Great Illuminary,” said brand manager Ryan Miller, a veteran of Wizards of the Coast who also helped design the gameplay of Disney Lorcana . “It is a treasury of all the Disney songs and stories ever made — all the characters — and it’s where they’re kind of recorded. The players take on this role of an Illumineer — this powerful sorcerer that has the ability to bring these characters to life off the page. [Players will be] bringing a band of their favorite Disney characters together to adventure in this world.”
– Polygon
The art style of Disney Lorcana is inspired by the classic introductions of classic Disney animated movies but utilizes modern digital techniques. More on this from Shane Hartley:
The collectible game will include a “modern storybook” art style, said North America head of games Cassidy Werner. Shane Hartley, global games creative director, said that it “was inspired by the storybook openings of classic Disney films and features visible line work and vibrant color washes” and “mixes both traditional hand-drawn qualities seen in fairy-tale storybooks with new digital techniques.”
– Polygon
The style of the game is described as less confrontational than Magic: the Gathering. See the quote below for a more in-depth description of the Lorcana Gameplay.
“Magic, I would say, has a very high competition level,” said Miller. “People love that about Magic . We have pulled back from it. I wouldn’t say that we’re cooperative in any sense — it’s definitely a strategy card game. But I would say that we’ve pulled back the confrontation level, because we feel that that will appeal to a lot more folks. So if you think [of] chess as the highest confrontation level you can get, we’re a bunch of notches behind that because we want people to have fun […] with these characters that they love so much.”
– Polygon
In another article, Ryan Miller says this about the gameplay.
“Disney Lorcana was designed to be easy to learn and welcoming for TCG newcomers while still offering strategic depth and challenges for experienced players. Disney collectors will love it as well since it contains more original Disney artwork than any other single product ever created”.
– GamesRadar
According to GamesRadar we are unlikely to see Star Wars and Marvel Properties right away in the world of Lorcana.
However, don’t assume you’ll be commanding icons from Disney-owned properties such as Marvel and Star Wars just yet. The announcement makes it clear that this is a collaboration between Disney Villainous publisher Ravensburger and Walt Disney Animation Studios (the team behind classic movies like The Lion King and more recent hits including Encanto, Moana, and Frozen). In other words, Pixar and the rest seem to be off the table for now. We’ve reached out to Ravensburger for clarification on this subject and although Lorcana co-designer and brand manager Ryan Miller noted that they’d be disclosing more in due course, it might be safer to assume Iron Man’s sitting this one out for now at least.
– GamesRadar
With that being said, Villainous has incorporated the Star Wars IP, and the description of The Great Illuminary hints at an open door to such properties.
The Great Illuminary,” said brand manager Ryan Miller, a veteran of Wizards of the Coast who also helped design the gameplay of Disney Lorcana . “It is a treasury of all the Disney songs and stories ever made — all the characters — and it’s where they’re kind of recorded.
– Polygon
We will get our first look at the card at Disney’s D23 Expo on September 9th. During this event, six cards will be available as a collector’s set and seven characters will be previewed.
Visit Ravensburger booth No. 164 to learn more and pick up the Disney LorcanaD23 exclusive collector’s set, containing the first six cards ever created for this groundbreaking new game.
– D23 Website
For coverage of the event be sure to bookmark our live-journal, and join the Discord where people are sure to be discussing the new cards.
Have a Magical Day!